Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

'London' is the theme of this year's Durga Puja pandal of Santosh Mitra Square in Kolkata. But, the sarbojanin puja committee has decided to engage famous fashion designer Agnimitra Paul as the 'costume designer' of debi Durga and her family. What will be your reaction if you see 'costume design' of debi Durga and her family? Sure it will be a novel idea. The costume of debi Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartick, Ganesh and Asur will be made by the way costumes made for Bollywood stars. But, the traditional fragrance of costumes must be there in the design.             Agnimitra said, golden touch would be fitted for the sari of debi Durga. And thought some specific ideas for the costume of Lakshmi & Saraswati. But she think, it would be most pleasure for her to do the costume design of Asur. At the same time, Agnimitra will take care that the traditional sentiments will not hamper. So, it is very 'challenging' for her to do this job without br...

I visited the Sati Shaktipeeth Kankalitala with my own and my younger brother's family last winter. It was a pleasant journey by car from Rampurhat of Birbhum district. We started our journey at about 9 am from my elder sister's house at Rampurhat. On the way we took rest at some market place for breakfast. After that, we again moved by car for our destination Kankalitala.            Finally, we crossed about 63 kms and reached at the desired Shaktipeeth after one and half an hour.           When we reached there, we saw that a good number of beggers were sitting on both side of the entrance road. We slowly crossed the road and entered into the main premises of the temple. The temple is a traditional 'pacca' construction with adjacent 'Nat Mandir' for the devotees and pilgrims. At that morning time, some of family's were busy with the rituals of goddess and some of them came for...